STAN FISCHLER: Many Jewish players in hockey

When I'm working Islanders home games at Nassau Veterans' Memorial Coliseum for MSG Network, we do our pre-game show from an open-air studio near the Coliseum's food court.

The nifty thing about it is that -- before and after we're on the air -- fans come over and schmooze with me and my colleagues, often in large numbers.

Over the years I've been asked one question over and over again: "Has there ever been a Jewish hockey player?"

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I get that on the average of twice a month and -- I have to laugh -- the answer is so obvious to me that I'm invariably surprised that the questions are never-ending.

There's a reason, of course, and it happens to be that hockey history has been handled very shabbily in the United States because the ice sport ranks below baseball, football and basketball in popularity.

What better proof than a book I just received from my wife, Shirley, called "Jewish Jocks -- An Unorthodox Hall Of Fame."

Its table of contents includes no less than 50 Jewish subjects, from Detroit Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg to Chicago Bears quarterback Sid Luckman to NBA guru Red Holzman and even a Hebrew bullfighter, Sidney Franklin -- The Matador from Flatbush.

You'd think that of the 50 athletes there would be at least half-a-dozen hockey players, but the only one who gets a chapter is Mathieu Schneider, whose father is Jewish but his mom was a French-Canadian Roman Catholic who converted to Judaism.

Not to make a big deal out of it, but Jews -- other than Schneider -- have made names for themselves in the National Hockey League since its inception in 1917.

For example, the Hart Memorial Trophy, which goes to the NHL's most valuable player, was donated to the league in 1924 by David A. Hart, father of Cecil Hart, former manager-coach of the Montreal Canadiens. Both were Jews.

One of the Rangers early defensemen was a chap named Alex Levinsky, who had the honor of owning two nicknames. The first was "Kingfish" and the other "Mine Boy." (When his mother watched her son Alex in action, she'd cry out, "That's mine boy!" Hence the monicker.)

Blueshirts followers in my age group may remember a Jewish defenseman named Hyman (Hy) Buller, who came to New York via the minor league Cleveland Barons. Buller played for the Blueshirts in the early 1950s and was good enough to gain a second All-Star berth in his rookie season. A big, blue banner adorned with the Star of David hung from the end balcony in the old Garden on Eighth Avenue and 50th Street.

Another Jewish member of the Rangers, albeit briefly, was Max Labovitch who starred for their farm club, the Rovers.

When the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 1950, Larry (The Rock) Zeidel wore the Star of David around his neck. He later played for the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers. Zeidel, one of the toughest players to come down the pike, helped Philly to first place in the Flyers first season, 1967-68.

"It wasn't always easy being a Jew playing hockey," Zeidel once told me. "I learned that as a kid growing up in Montreal where I had plenty of fights to establish my toughness. This continued later in the minors and the NHL."

Zeidel is notorious for having engaged in two of the most vicious fights -- sticks and fists I'll have you know -- in the ice game's annals.

When The Rock played defense for the Edmonton Flyers -- a Red Wings farm club -- and Jack Evans played for the Rangers farm club in Saskatoon, the pair engaged in battle, swinging sticks like machetes until the wooden shafts broke. Nonplussed, the pair went at it with the broken shafts until the bloodied battlers were separated and sent to the infirmary for repairs.

Late in the 1967-68 season when Zeidel was on the Flyers, he was baited with anti-semitic slurs by members of the Boston Bruins. A stick fight with Boston's Eddie Shack followed, accompanied by more uncomplimentary barbs. Following the match, Zeidel phoned his wife, Marie, about the nerve-wracking incidents and she, in turn, phoned me.

At the time I was writing for the Toronto Star, then Canada's leading evening newspaper, and the story about the anti-Jewish baiting hit the sports page the next day. Eventually, the episode made its way to then NHL President Clarence Campbell, who once had been a judge in post-war Germany during the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals.

To his credit, Campbell wasted no time censuring the Bruins and, furthermore, issued a "White Paper" insuring that similar incidents would not happen again.

Matty Schneider, the only Jewish hockey player to make it into the "Jewish Jocks" book, enjoyed a long NHL career including a major role on the 1993 Stanley Cup-winning Montreal Canadiens, not to mention the Kings, Red Wings Islanders and Rangers, among others.

"Every city I played in," said Schneider, "the Jewish community reached out to me. I was inducted into a couple of Jewish sports halls of fame -- in Southern California, Michigan, Long Island. People were just tremendous, and I was fortunate to play in such great cities."

By contemporary hockey standards, Matty wasn't a particularly big fellow, but he played a lot harder than his size. His success can be measured by his ability to play almost two decades worth of rugged defending. His crowning achievement was winning the Cup in Montreal after having defeated a spirited Islanders club in the third playoff round.

"If there's one place you would want to win the Stanley Cup in it would have to be Montreal," Schneider recalled. "Hall of Famers from past Canadiens championship teams -- Jean Beliveau, Dickie Moore, those guys -- were always around. It made it so much more special playing there."

The Jewish player in New York hoping to win a Cup is Rangers forward Jeff Halpern who, like Schneider, has paid his dues in many NHL cities. Halpern isn't surrounded by the likes of Beliveau and Moore, but if the Rangers make the post-season, he can be sure that Mark Messier, Brian Leetch and Mike Keenan will be there to encourage Halpern and the Blueshirts.

And, of course, the spirit of Hy Buller, Max Labovitch and Mine Boy Levinsky will be smiling down from above with a message of mazel tov.

Author-columnist-commentator Stan "The Maven" Fischler resides in Boiceville and New York City. His column appears each week in the Sunday Freeman.